So, Gaerek, how would you feel if your car were stolen, and in the course of a high speed pursuit the car thief or a pursuing officer caused one or more traffic deaths?

We would all feel bad, but would you feel responsible?

It would be one thing if when I parked the car I locked it and took the key with me. It would be another thing if I left the key in the car and the door open.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MLeake

...A portable lockbox will keep your small child away from the gun, but will not keep a teenaged thief from taking lockbox, gun, and all...

Our lock boxes are bolted down and no longer portable. And in any case, there's still a difference between a gun that's locked in a lock box and one that is not.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MLeake

...If somebody had implied, back in the 1970s, that a gun owner was morally or legally responsible for the actions of a thief, they would have been laughed at, and rightfully so...

Of course, that was then and this is now. Now there are safe storage laws and potential criminal liability in some States for the gun owner whose unsecured, loaded gun is taken by a minor who hurts someone with it.

You might not like it, but that's how it is. And if you can get enough people to agree with you, there are ways to try to change the laws.

And you might also want to consider whether some of these laws came about because there was a broad, public perception that too many gun owners were not taking sufficient care to prevent foreseeable unauthorized misuse of their guns. That is how a lot of these sorts of laws come into being.

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"It is long been a principle of ours that one is no more armed because he has possession of a firearm than he is a musician because he owns a piano. There is no point in having a gun if you are not capable of using it skillfully." -- Jeff Cooper